In the previous section we worked through the first point; now we turn to the second. Throughout this chapter we must keep in mind what was explained in chapter 46: there the Alter Rebbe wanted to stress the sheer gap in value between the one who loves and the one who is loved.
The second point: the gap in value between the lover and the beloved.
The greater the gap in value, the more powerful the love, and correspondingly the stronger the feelings that ought to be awakened in the one who receives that love. The lower and more lowly the recipient, «the lowliest of men,» debased, the greater his feeling has to be, appreciating the gift and the love he has been given.
A person who has worked, invested and earned something is no longer «the lowliest of men.» He has already lifted himself up and become «somebody,» so when he is given something, the gap in value has, as it were, narrowed. But when a thing is given to a person who did nothing, earned nothing, and has no claim to it whatsoever, who receives it purely as a gift, that very fact highlights his lowliness and his sunken state, and precisely in this way it magnifies and intensifies the feelings of love.
So for the flow of the chapters here it fits better to say: precisely by us, where the matter comes as an inheritance and as a gift, we feel how low and small we are, and that we received a gift even though we did nothing and invested nothing. For that reason the responding feeling, the or chozer (the «returning light,» the love that rises back up in response), must be far stronger.
The third point: a giving without limit.
In halachah there is a fundamental difference between a sale and a gift:
A sale: «one who sells, sells generously.» When doubts arise as to what exactly the seller intended to include, which areas, which parts, we say he sold with a generous eye. But in the end, why did he sell him precisely this object, precisely this quantity of merchandise and no more? Who set the limit on the amount, and by what vessel were the goods measured? By the payment the buyer handed over. In other words, the giving in a sale is limited by the vessels of the recipient: what you gave is what you got.
A gift: of one who gives a gift too we say «whoever gives, gives generously,» but here the amount is not measured by the recipient's vessels at all. Who sets the limit of the gift, and by what vessel is it measured? It depends on the giver alone.
Now apply this to our subject. When the giver is the Holy One and the recipient is flesh and blood: if he receives according to the measure of his own avodah, then he has received according to the limited vessels of a created being. But if he receives according to the measure of the giver's will, then he has received without limit.
The Avos, Avraham Avinu and all the Avos, received what they received by virtue of their avodah, in return for what they invested. But by us, where it comes as an inheritance and a gift that bears no relation at all to the measure of a person's avodah, and his avodah has no value whatsoever in comparison to it, the measuring is the Creator's own unlimited measuring, and the giving is immeasurably greater. It follows that a person's sense of how great the Creator's love for him is must also be far greater, and that is exactly why the Alter Rebbe stresses this side of things here, to bring out the magnitude of the Creator's love for us in this situation.
This is spelled out in a verse in Shir HaShirim, as the Midrash expounds it, and as it appears at length in maamarei chassidus: «לריח שמניך טובים שמן תורק שמך» (For the fragrance of your oils is goodly; your name is as oil poured forth). The Midrash explains that this is an oil that has a pleasant fragrance, and with such an oil there are two possibilities:
Receiving only the fragrance: a person who walks past a perfumer's shop catches the scent, but when he goes home he has no oil in his hand, and little by little the fragrance evaporates.
«Shemen turak»: «turak» means something poured from one vessel into another. A person comes to the shop with his own vessel, and they pour a quantity of oil into it. When he leaves, he has actually received the oil, the thing itself, the source.
And the nimshal: this is the difference between the Avos and the Jewish people. The Avos, who lived before Mattan Torah, before there was a «gift,» received only the fragrance. We, after Mattan Torah, received the oil itself. The Holy One, as it were, poured out for us the oil itself, Himself, as we will see in the lines that follow immediately. The giving is incomparably greater, and it is unlimited.
The same is true of an inheritance. An inheritance has no criterion of what age the heir must be, or what level of intelligence he must have. A day-old infant, if he was born in his father's lifetime, inherits everything, even though he is a day-old infant. That is to say, in an inheritance there is simply no such thing as giving that is proportionate to the recipient's vessels, to his intellect and his comprehension. And that is the Jewish people, who receive the matter as a gift and as an inheritance.
This is why a Jew says in Krias Shema «ה' אלוקינו» (Hashem our G-d): You are our G-d, the Holy One attaches His Name to us, and that is far more than «the G-d of Avraham, the G-d of Yitzchak and the G-d of Yaakov.»
And in the words of the Tanya itself: «אבל אנחנו ירושה ומתנה היא לנו, שנתן לנו את תורתו והלביש בה רצונו וחכמתו יתברך, המיוחדים במהותו ועצמותו יתברך בתכלית היחוד» (But for us it is an inheritance and a gift, for He gave us His Torah and clothed in it His will and His wisdom, which are united with His essence and being in absolute unity). When the Holy One gave us His Torah, in effect He gave us Himself, for the Creator's will and wisdom are one with Him, He and His wisdom are one. He did not give us a mere radiance or an influx; He gave us Himself. And when a Jew learns Torah, he becomes one with the very essence and being of the Creator.
And when a Jew takes the Divine unity upon himself and keeps Torah and mitzvos, that is a true yetzias Mitzrayim: the body limits, conceals, constricts and interferes, and a person is given the opportunity to go out of that state and to connect with the Creator's own essence. This is what the Alter Rebbe continues: «והרי זה כאילו נתן לנו את עצמו כביכול» (and this is as if He gave us His very Self, as it were).
Recall the well-known wording of the Gemara on the verse «אנוכי ה' אלוקיך» (I am Hashem your G-d), the opening of the Ten Commandments. The Tzemach Tzedek, in one of the maamarim in Ohr HaTorah, explains the precision of the Gemara: the verse does not say «ani» but «anochi,» and the difference between them is the letter kaf, which in chassidus alludes to Kesser, Kesser Elyon, an exceedingly lofty level. The Gemara expresses this in its own style, reading «anochi» as an acronym: alef, nun, kaf, yud, «אנא נפשי כתבית יהבית.» The Gemara itself does not spell out the reason behind this reading, but this is what it means.
Rashi on the Gemara: «ana nafshi kesavis yehavis» means, I Myself wrote and gave you the Torah.
In chassidus the emphasis is placed differently: not «I Myself wrote,» but «I wrote My very Self,» I wrote and gave you Myself.
This is true love, and this is the whole thrust of the matter: the Holy One simply gave us Himself. The Alter Rebbe does not quote the Gemara here, but this is what is hinted at in his words «and this is as if He gave us His very Self, as it were.»
The Alter Rebbe now brings a fascinating passage of Zohar: «כמו שכתוב בזוהר הקדוש על פסוק ויקחו לי תרומה, דלי כלומר, אותי» (as it is written in the holy Zohar on the verse «and they shall take for Me a terumah,» that «for Me» means, Myself). The Zohar pauses on the word «li,» for Me: what does «li» mean? Take Me. And what is «terumah»? The Torah. For in Torah there is pshat, remez and sod: on the level of pshat, «and they shall take for Me a terumah» is a command to the Jewish people to give contributions for the building of the Mishkan; and the sod within the verse is that «terumah» is Torah.
And why is «terumah» Torah? The Zohar says that inside the word «terumah» the word «Torah» is contained in full, and what is added to it is the letter mem, which in gematria is forty, for the Torah was given over forty days, since Moshe Rabbeinu was there forty days and forty nights. So «terumah» is Torah that was given over mem, forty, days.
Accordingly, in one and the same phrase the Holy One is saying two things: «take Me» and «take the Torah.» The Zohar then asks: if these are two separate things, the verse should have used a connecting vav, «and they shall take for Me and a terumah.» Why is it written in one flow, with no vav? The answer is that «li» and «terumah» are one and the same thing: the Torah and the Holy One are one, He is the Torah. And this is how the Alter Rebbe concludes: «והוה ליה למימר ותרומה, משום דכולא חד, עיין שם היטב» (it should have said «and a terumah,» but it is because all is one; see there carefully). One should study the Zohar there carefully and grasp what it is saying.
To summarize: in this section we have taken up two further points in the emphasis on «inheritance and gift.» First, the gap in value: precisely one who received without having worked or invested feels his own lowliness and the magnitude of the love he has been given, and his or chozer is correspondingly stronger. Second, giving without limit: in a sale the amount is measured by the recipient's vessels, while in a gift it is measured by the giver, and when the giver is the Holy One the gift is unlimited. We saw in the Midrash on «shemen turak shemecha» that the Avos received the fragrance while we received the oil itself, and that in an inheritance even a day-old infant inherits everything; and therefore a Jew says «Hashem Elokeinu.» Finally we learned that in giving the Torah the Holy One gave us His very Self, as it were: «ana nafshi kesavis yehavis,» and in the language of the Zohar on «and they shall take for Me a terumah,» «for all is one.»
In the next section we will continue with the Alter Rebbe's own words in chapter 47 and with the further explanation of the matter.